The Nightmare
by Ari.L.S
Summary: Lydia gets sucked into Beetlejuice's dreams, only to find that he's recalling the night she commited suicide for him. See "Third Time's a Charm" for more details. One shot. BJxLyds. Series based.


The Nightmare

"Goodnight," I said with a yawn as I crawled into bed. Beetlejuice was right next to me, already snoring his head off. I let out a small sigh and turned away from him. Though I was used to the smell and the loud sound, I didn't want to come face to face with them. I curled my legs against my chest, still laying on my side, and closed my eyes. My body was relaxed and warm, due to my Dracula style nightgown and the knitted blanket Beetlejuice and I shared.

Though my body was at almost complete peace, my mind was buzzing. My body was weary, but my mind longed for more adventures. The wheels in my head were always turning, even at a slow pace at night. I had a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night. I would never actually rise from bed. I would just open my eyes and lay there. Eventually sleep would overcome me again, only to be chased away by my twenty-four hour imagination.

Then Beetlejuice's snores escalated. I let out a small groan and covered my head with my pillow. His body jerked in a weird and sudden movement, shaking the bed a little. This tended to happen when he was dreaming about sandworms. Just as I was about to move to the couch, I heard him let out a strange cry.

"Lyds…"

I looked over at him.

"Beetlejuice?" I whispered.

"Lyds…"

"Are you awake?" I reached over to shake him a little. Just as my hands touched his arm, I felt a strange force pulling me into him. I gasped, shutting my eyes tightly as gusts of wind rushed past me. When I opened my eyes once more, I was surrounded by darkness. "Beetlejuice?" I called. My voice echoed back. I tried again, a little louder this time. The only response I got was my own voice. I was about to try once more, but I was interrupted by a clunk and a flash. In front of me I saw Beetlejuice sitting in the middle of a pool of light. I looked up. The same light washed over me. I stepped closer to him.

"C'mon, Lyds," he muttered, tapping his fingers impatiently. "Get me outta here…"

"I'm right here," I said to him, but he didn't seem to hear me. I took another step closer, but something pushed me away from his curled up form and sent me flying. I let out a cry of pain as my back hit something metallic. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw that we were trapped in a cage. My eyes darted everywhere. There was nothing but darkness surrounding us. My eyes widened. My breathing was fast and unsteady. I nervously curled my fingers around the bars of the cage. In the distance I heard a quiet voice echoing.

"_Though I know I should be wary, still I venture someplace scary. Ghostly haunting I turn loose. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice…_"

Beetlejuice looked up and stood, clenching his fists.

"C'mon, Babes, once more!" he said to himself. There was a long pause. He kept staring into the blackness with wide open eyes. "C'MON!" he shouted impatiently. I sucked in a deep breath and let go of the bars, dropping to the checkerboard floor. I cautiously stepped towards him, stopping once I felt that pushing force getting ready to expel me. My body trembled, feeling so cold all of a sudden. Just as it seemed like Beetlejuice was going to rip his hair out, the final word rang through the space as clear as a bell.

"Beetlejuice!"

With a burst of maniacal laughter, Beetlejuice rose from the floor and twirled in a spiral, causing more gusts of wind. My body was sucked into this spiral and we disappeared.

We reappeared in my bedroom. The drapes were closed. My newly cut hair sat in a circle around the scissors I used to clip it. The room was dark.

"Lyds?" Beetlejuice called. He looked around for a moment, taking in the darkness, and went to turn on a light. "Kinda dark in here, dontcha think? I mean, I like the dark, but it's bad fer the eyes, ya know?" With a pull of a string, my bat light was on. Again he turned his head all ways. "Lydiaaaaaa?" he called again. "Where'd ya go?" He began passing my bed to go to the other side of the room. His eyes cast down for a moment, where he saw my head. We both gasped simultaneously. I knew where we were. "Oh my God, Lyds!" he exclaimed. "She must've fainted again," he added to himself as he knelt by my head. "Dammit, Lyds, ya can't keep _starvin' _yerself like this!" My eyes were lightly closed. My lips were stale. My skin was paler than usual. He reached his arm over my body to grab my opposite shoulder, but his motion stopped short. I brought my fingers to my lips. His elbow had bumped against the erect knife sticking out of my chest. The bump helped my limp hands slip off of the handle. His yellow eyes widened even more when he caught sight of the object. "Lydia!" he cried, tugging the knife out. Warm blood dripped off of the blade and onto my skin. I could feel his touch on my shoulders as he pulled me up, his arms wrapping around my back and pulling me closer to him.

He was muttering something in that same crass voice I knew and loved. Nearly everything that came out of his mouth was dripping with some sort of sarcasm, malevolence, sincerity (on occasion), or something mixing at least two of those, and those words I always found comical. But now he simply wailed a legato string of the words "Oh", "Dead", "God", "Please", "Don't", "Why", and "Lydia (along with his nicknames for me)" set in a random order that repeated for a very long time. I felt sweltering tears rolling down my face. I wrapped my own arms around myself, hoping that Beetlejuice were right behind me, but he wasn't. It was just me floating a few feet away from the scene. He tightly gripped my body, refusing to let go. He raised his head to the ceiling, screaming, "What have I done?!" It was almost like he knew why I had committed suicide, and he was blaming himself for it. I wanted to reach out and wrap my arms around him and tell him it was okay and that I was there with him. I couldn't stand to see him cry like this. His tears were out of genuine sadness, and it broke my still heart to see him in this state.

"It's okay, it's okay," I kept repeating gently as I gingerly floated towards his hunched form. "It's okay, I'm here, it's over…"

Something was pulling me away from us, back into the spiraling black vortex. I screamed his name, but he didn't hear my cries. I kept screaming as loud as my voice allowed me to, hearing the calls echo back at me and pierce my ears. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, BEETLEJUICE!"

"Lyds!"

My eyes shot open. I found myself lying in a familiar bed in a familiar room wearing familiar clothes with a familiar person next to me. I turned towards him, taking in shallow breaths. My face was caked in a mask of sweat and tears. Beetlejuice reached over and turned one of the lights on. I sat up, rubbing my eyes. I felt my hair sticking out every which-way. I must've looked like a total mess. My body felt muggy and weak. My limbs were trembling as I sat up. He inched a bit closer to me and gently pulled me into an embrace. His warm touch instantly calmed my body and I sank into him, controlling my breathing. We sat in silence for a few moments before he finally spoke.

"Bad dream?" he said. I couldn't make my lips move, so I just nodded slowly. "Yeah," he replied quietly. "I get those a lot too." I looked up at him. He was smiling. I tried smiling too, but it felt pretty weak. I rested my drooping head on his shoulder.

"Hold me, okay?" I said quietly, feeling my body drag itself back to the pillow. As my eyes closed into sleep once more, Beetlejuice pulled me closer to him, draping the blanket over us.


End file.
